LBS alumni take pupils on tour

The Advanced Management Programme (AMP) Class 26 of the Lagos Business School (LBS) has taken pupils of Community Senior High School, Ibeju, Lekki on an excursion to Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care Treatment Home School and the University of Lagos.

The purpose of the excursion, according to Dimeji Olono, a member of the class, was for the children to learn to appreciate their parents, lives and God to give back to society just as Cole did.

Olono said the pupils were taken to University of Lagos (UNILAG) to inspire them to pursue university education, adding that some of them may not have been to that part of the state.

At Modupe Cole Memorial Child Care Treatment Home School, a teacher, Mrs Oluwaseun Adaranijo, took the pupils round the school, including the bed-ridden section, whose occupants, she said, never go out, except those of them who attend school.

In another part of the dormitory were those who could move around and play while some talk, others cannot.

She also took them to the boys’ hostel and vocational centre, which houses the the computer room, home economics food laboratory, home economics sewing laboratory, leather work and carpentry work shop, art and craft, barbing saloon, among others.

Another teacher, Mr kareem Akim, gave a short history of the school, recalled that the Child Care Home Treatment School, which was established in 1960 by Mrs Modupe Cole from her flat at Babatunde Close, Surulere, and relocated to Akoka when the children increased in number.

The Lagos State Government took over the school in 1976 and renamed it after Mrs. Modupe Cole when she died in 1980.

Akim said there were three categories of pupils in the school the educable ones, who can cope in the classroom setting; the trainable ones, who can learn vocational skills, and the dependent, who cannot do anything by themselves.

He said some of the dependent were up to 30 years but had the mental age of a nine-month old.

Speaking after the tour, Enobong Esther, an SS2 pupil, said she learnt to be friendly and not look down on anyone.

“I learnt to be friendly and not look down on anyone, because i felt uncomfortable when we came but after the speech by Mr. Kareem, I was enlightened about the conditions of the pupils and could touch some of them,” she said.

Joy Egbotolorun, an SS2 pupil, said she learnt to be grateful. “I learnt to be grateful to everyone. I had compassion on the pupils and after the orientation; I asked myself, if normal human beings are ungrateful to one another and God, what should the physical challenged do?” she asked.